Visit to Parlee Cycles
On Thurs Nov. 4, I was invited to Parlee Cycles’ new plant in Beverly Mass. This is an all-in-one location for them serving as manufacturing place, painting booths, warehouse, and office. I love getting to visit frame manufacturers, and Parlee didn’t disappoint. Ben met me at the door, and I was greeted by an immaculate showroom, housing some of their more prestigious, and some of their brand new bikes.
Parlee Showroom
It was then onto the manufacturing floor. This was my first visit to a carbon fiber frame manufacturer, so I was very interested to see first-hand some of their processes. Among the things I was very impressed with was the fact that they don’t use traditional lugs, but rather build the lugs around the tubes, a lot like how Scott builds their bikes. The big difference is that Parlee doesn’t use any cosmetic fillers in their joints. They also use different tubesets to match up with the rider’s weight, and riding style. We then spent a little time talking with one of their master builders, and he went through how their molding system works.
Parlee factory
Needless to say, it was different then I’ve seen anybody else use, and super cool. As we moved downstairs, I got to see the warehouse, the paint area and the shipping area. Parlee offers perhaps the most complete finishing options of any manufacturer, anything from a waxing option to complete custom paint. I found the waxing to be really interesting, as paint can add anywhere from 80-200g of weight to a frame. We then finished up with a long conversation about frame building philosophies, and how they develop their models, and even got some input from Bob Parlee himself, and got a glimpse into what he’s working on right now, for new things from these guys.
Needless to say, I have become more impressed with this little company from Beverly MA, and I am looking forward to getting my new Z1 in (after passing Tom’s test, of course…). If you are looking to acquire a custom carbon frameset, or just want one of the finest handcrafted frames that you can buy, come in and let’s talk about how to get you on one of these fine machines.
